Last night, videogame hardware component manufacturer, Nvidia, announced that they are developing a portable games console of their own, dubbed “Project Shield”. The device runs on the Android OS and will have the ability to play games from the Android marketplace as well as stream games from your Steam library via your PC.
While no games have officially been announced for Project Shield specifically, developers like Ubisoft and Epic have voiced their approval of the device in a press release shared by Nvidia today.
Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, stated: “Ubisoft is always excited about new hardware developments, and Project Shield promises to bring both mobile and PC gamers a great new gaming experience. Seeing the PC version of Assassin’s Creed III run on the device is a great example of this, and further strengthens Ubisoft’s long-standing relationship with Nvidia.”
Meanwhile, Mark Rein, co-founder of Epic Games, who are behind the immensely successful and widely-utilized Unreal Engine, said: ““With Project Shield, Nvidia brings an uncompromising, high-performance console experience to mobile devices. Amazing games including Real Boxing and Hawken, which utilize the latest Unreal Engine technology, look fantastic on Project Shield. This is just the beginning, and we’re truly excited to see what more Unreal Engine developers will do with so much horsepower in such a compact gaming device.”
Finally, Bill Wagner, chief production officer at Meteor Games, who developed Hawken, states: “Coming from the openness of a PC platform, we love how accessible Project Shield is, and the flexibility it gives gamers everywhere. Project Shield gives us the cutting-edge ability to bring a huge free-to-play PC game like Hawken to the handheld gaming audience.”
Project Shield can also access Android apps such as Hulu, Netflix and Slacker Radio. The device comes with a 5-inch, 1280×720 HD retinal multi-touch screen.
